StarWind 3.5.5 crashes w/ image file target & MS Initiator

[passout]

First, this software is very cool. It is lightning fast and I love the features.

That being said, I have been running StarWind 3.5.5 and I can not find any combination that is stable. I have tried running it on Vista sp1 and on XP sp3. When used in conjunction with the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator (latest version) and an image file target it is blazingly fast until the StarWind server crashes. I have atteched the logs and I'd be happy to supply the dumps. I tried to attach them but they must be too big because it kept failing.

So, I thought maybe there is a problem with the Microsoft iSCSI Initiator and got a copy of StarPort 3.6.3. With the StarPort -> StarWind configuration it ran ok at first (not nearly as fast as with MS Initiator) then the StarPort machine degraded to the point that the entire system was hung. I don't really have any logs from that machine because it wasn't possible to get any. I could probably reproduce that and forcibly crash the process before it hangs to get a dump.

I haven't tried windows server 2003 yet but can do so tonight. My hope is to run it on a Windows Vista sp1 machine though. I could run it in a VM but that is clearly suboptimal.

I have tried both of the above scenarios with initiator and target on the same machine and on different machines.

I am trying to use it to write backups from multiple workstations to a single storage array.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

starwind-20090208-002108.zip

log from crash #1

(3.43 KiB) Downloaded 556 times

starwind-20090208-194719.zip

log from crash #2

(3.31 KiB) Downloaded 537 times

[Filimonov]

Hello,

Please send us the log files to support@starwindsoftware.com

Thank you.

[passout]

Files were attached to the original post. I downloaded them and sent via e-mail as well.

BTW, I ran similar tests last night using w2k3 EE and I didn't have the same issue. I have to try with a bigger file to replicate the same test but will do so and post a reply.

Thank you.

[passout]

I don't know what has changed but now I can't reproduce it on any OS. It was failing like clock work before. I will continue to work with it. Please let me know if the logs point to anything.

[passout]

I let a full windows PC complete backup (~100GB) run on on my vista sp 1 to vista sp1 config with ms initiator and it did crash again. Attached is the log. I will send it in to e-mail as well. It did behave much better this time in the sense that it ran longer and the memory utilization stayed stable for a long time. Before the memory utilization would immediately start to climb and steadily climb on the server side until Task Manager was reporting "Physical Memory: 98%".

I will try running one of my other configs for a full backup to see if I can reproduce there.

starwind-20090213-234457.zip

Another log file

(3.8 KiB) Downloaded 526 times

[Robert (staff)]

Hello passout,

Please send everything once again to support@starwindsoftware.com

Thanks,
Rob

[passout]

It turns out I had numerous network issues apparently not related to StarWind. To make a long story short - I ended up replacing my switch, router, and NICs. And tweaked the NIC settings on both ends for jumbo frames and maxed out the transmit and recieve buffers.

Now it appears to be running well (fast AND stable that is). I'm getting 65 MB/sec across the network to my single eSATA backup drive with Windows Complete PC Backup and it is stable. I am still using StarWind 3.5.5 and the MS Initiator with Vista SP1 on both sides.

I have some scripts to write before I can put this into "production". I'll post back if any more issues come up.

Thanks for the support.

[Robert (staff)]

Hello,

Please let us know about your results and tell us everything!

Thank you!
Rob.